United Kingdom

Cameron’s support for marriage equality improves popularity among LGBT voters

LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron’s strong support for legalizing same-sex marriage has greatly improved his popularity with the U.K.’s LGBT voters since the last general election, according to a recent survey by PinkNews.co.uk.

According to the polling results, although Cameron has alienated many within his own Conservative Party, he is now regarded as the best prime minister for the country among LGBT voters. This change in perception is significant, as a majority of Britain’s LGBT voters prefer the Labour Party over the conservative Tories.

David Cameron

Article continues below

PinkNews surveyed a panel of 864 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered voters, and found that the Tories had boosted their rating from 11 to 30 per cent since the last election.

If an election were held today, 38 percent would vote Labour, 30 percent Conservative, 13 percent Liberal Democrat and nine percent Green. At the 2010 election, 39 per cent of the panel supported the Liberal Democrats, 27 per cent Labour, 11 per cent the Tories and six per cent the Greens.

Of those polled, 64 percent polled said that they either liked the Conservatives a little or a lot more since Cameron proposed introducing same-sex marriage.

“By proposing same-sex marriage, David Cameron has unquestionably improved the standing of the Conservative Party among the gay community,” noted PinkNews’ publisher, Benjamin Cohen. “However, what’s most interesting is that he is considerably more popular than his party within our community.”

“This perhaps reflects the fact that many of the most vocal opponents of introducing this final act of equality for gay people have been Conservative MPs, some of whom represent and have angered the very people who voted in the poll,” said Cohen.

There were similar results in a separate survey of 1,432 PinkNews readers. Some 42 per cent would now vote Labour, 30 per cent Conservative, 10 per cent Liberal Democrat and 10 per cent Green.

Another recent poll — conducted for British media outlet, the Guardian newspaper — found that 62 percent of all voters support gay couples being given the right to marry.

In that poll, a record 52 percent of conservative voters said they are in favor of Cameron’s proposal, while only 42 percent were opposed; the poll also found that 67 percent of Labour voters support equal marriage.

The poll also found that 62 percent of voters said they supported gay weddings in the Church of England.